News
"Otaku Cultural Mecca" Welcomes Foreigners in PR Blitz
posted on by Egan Loo
The Tokyo Shimbun reports that Nakano Broadway, the five-story Tokyo shopping mall famous as an "otaku cultural mecca," will target foreigners in a new publicity campaign. It will produce a guide map in Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean and develop a website for foreigners at the end of May. On May 5 and 6, the shopping center is holding a daily raffle (limited to foreigners with passports or ID cards) that offers digital cameras and portable audio players as prizes. The organizers are forecasting that 1,600 foreigners will participate in the raffle. Nakano Broadway's publicity strategy is part of the larger Yokoso! Japan touristry campaign.
Nakano Broadway's most well-known resident, the Mandarake collectors' goods store chain, has over two dozen miniature shops on the top three floors. Other attractions include the Anime World Star cel shop, maid cafes, game stores, and cosplay shops.
